Ms Mary Barrett:

Deputy Byrne also mentioned the east African community and the southern African development community. Those have not got to the stage we are at with the west Africa community yet. Last year, all the negotiations concluded in respect of the west Africa, east Africa and southern Africa communities. The west Africa community agreement was then quickly put through legal scrubbing and translation. The EU member states and most of the west African states were ready to sign last December. The east Africa community and southern Africa development community agreements have been through legal scrubbing, which is where the wording is fine tuned. The negotiators would have been working late at night so the lawyers on both sides collaborate and agree the final agreements. That has now been concluded. It went a bit longer than usual in respect of those two regions but they are now being translated and the next step will be for the EU to bring them to the member states. We will then proceed to sign and revert to the committee on them in due course.